


Tending To the Future of Ghosts Long Dead

by auntieshakespeare



Series: The lovers, the dreamers, and me [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam-Centric, Autistic Keith (Voltron), Brotherly Bonding, Gay Disaster Shiro (Voltron), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-11 23:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16861792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auntieshakespeare/pseuds/auntieshakespeare
Summary: In which Shiro runs from his own happiness and Adam cleans up his messes.





	Tending To the Future of Ghosts Long Dead

**Author's Note:**

> This is essentially one of the last stories in a large Voltron mythos that minnowlet and I have spent the last four months creating. Naturally I present this to you first and with zero context. Good job me.
> 
> All you really need to know for this story is that:  
> 1\. Keith and Adam Do Not Get Along  
> 2\. Adam has two moms, Deborah and Hannah  
> 3\. Adam and Hunk are dating  
> 4\. Keith is autistic  
> And I guess 5. Everybody lives yay I hate character death
> 
> Anyway I hope you enjoy I literally wrote this as an ode to my newfound friendship with minnowlet. They're rad af and don't judge me for my absurdly horny autocorrect.

Adam finds him on the roof.

Of course he does. Keith never strays too far from danger on the best of days, even if that danger is mostly benign. The part of Adam that grudgingly loves this boy is in knots seeing those little legs dangling off the edge of the roof, mind caught up in the memory of too many nights post-Kerberos where he longed to walk the edge of destruction too.

Of course there's also a small part of him that wouldn't mind pushing him off the roof either. It's only a two story drop. He'd survive.

Sighing in tandem with the phantom Hunk in his mind (admittedly for very different reasons), Adam carefully makes his way over to Keith's perch, sitting down a measured distance away. Adam isn't the only one who entertains casual fantasies about violence and he has the barest sliver of a long since healed knife wound to prove it.

"So...Takashi really has a way of making a mess out of even the best situations, doesn't he?"

He expects the glare that's leveled at him, the hint of yellow in Keith's eyes. What he doesn't expect is the fear. 

"He didn't run off because he regrets it, you know that right?" Adam asks, gentler now. He wants to be harsher, wants to be mocking and sarcastic. He could sneer and Keith would kind of deserve it. 

_No, baby_ Deborah's voice, low and disappointed, echoes through his mind. _Love should never be a punishment. It's not a weapon. And if you use it like it is, you're hurting more than just Keith._

So Adam is gentle. He knows the pain of loving someone unaccustomed to feeling loved. Being in a relationship where both sides acted as if the concept of reciprocity was a pipe dream? Sounded exhausting. Being loved by Hunk was a gift that he'd never stop appreciating.

Keith is turned away from Adam once more, his profile backlit by the full moon. He looks young, is young, but draped in what is undoubtedly Shiro's jacket, hands twisted up in the fabric, he appears more like the child he never really was.

His lips have been gnawed raw and Adam knows if his hands weren't buried under yards of fabric, Keith would be tugging on his shaggy locks. Shiro's usually the best bet at keeping Keith from hurting himself too badly when he goes nonverbal like this, but since Shiro is the cause of this particular meltdown, Adam is going to have to do.

"Keith."

A humming noise is all the response he gets. It's something of a relief that Keith is too out of it to wield a knife. The humming grows louder, more high pitched. Arms now wrapped tight around his middle, Keith begins to rock.

Well fuck. "Hey Keith?" Adam says, voice calm and low, "I'm gonna get up and help you move away from the edge, okay? But I'm going to have to touch you."

The rocking intensifies and thank every fucking deity that Keith is such a small guy because the motion would have launched him and Adam off the roof otherwise. Grabbing him under the armpits of his baggy sweater, Adam scoots the two of them as far up the roof as he can manage given the movement he's fighting against.

Settled in, Adam's legs bracketing Keith's body, something intangible snaps. The whining hum ceases and instead Keith begins to shake and sob. Keith cries in Adam's arms and time starts to lose meaning. The only important bit is keeping him held tight.

"W-why w-would he ju-ust leave like that?" Keith eventually stutters out between gasps. "He's always leaving."

Dropping his head so that his nose is resting against the back of Keith's neck, Adam breathes out one long, controlled breath. 

"Shiro has never been afraid of trouble. Was never afraid of the dark as a kid, never worried about the dangers of flying planes or spaceships. Never let his disease drag him down. He'd be in the hospital and we'd all be freaking out. Three different IVs in his arms, monitors all over his body, catheter in his--well anyway, he'd be so calm. Always tried to keep up with the homework, even delirious on pain meds.

But good things? That's harder for him. His father complimented him on a speech once and it sent him into this terrifying downward spiral that ended up with him back in the hospital after he overworked himself again. 

Shiro's dad...he didn't love him right. And Shiro grew up thinking that love was something you earned and could be rescinded at any moment. So when he does things to show you how much he loves you? It scares the shit out of him because he's afraid that he's gonna hurt you by loving you wrong too."

Memories of the last dinner Shiro had with Adam and his moms flit through his head, Hannah's soft, airy voice ringing clear and bright _I hope that sweet boy let's someone love him right some day._

"He hurt me by running," comes Keith reply, quiet, scratchy.

"Oh baby, I know. I'm so, so sorry."

Adam and Keith look up in unison at the new voice. Shiro stands in the doorway of the stairwell to the roof, his large body filling the entrance. Adam should probably disentangle himself from Keith, but honestly Shiro needs to see the consequences of his actions. You know you've fucked up when you've gotten your ex to cuddle your current partner and that knowledge is written red across Shiro's cheeks. He steps closer, slow so as not to startle Keith. Adam doubts Shiro even really sees Adam right now. His world is narrowed down to this one boy.

"Keith, baby, I can't...I can't stop apologizing for how I reacted tonight. You'd think by now I could manage to tell someone how much I love them without losing my mind."

Adam snorts. Two sets of eyes shoot unimpressed looks at him. "Yeah yeah, this is your big Nicholas Sparks movie moment, I'll stop ruining it."

Tension of the moment broken, Shiro helps Adam and Keith onto their feet. Dusting himself off, Adam turns to Keith "You deserve this, you know. Not _this_ exactly, but happiness? I'm happy for you. And if you decide to forgive this big idiot I guess I can be happy for him too."

A small smile, a little huff. "Thank you, Adam. You. You too."

Though his eyebrows migrate somewhere near his hairline in surprise, Adam manages to keep himself in check. "Good night guys. Fix your shit and don't have sex on the roof."

"GOOD NIGHT Adam." Even walking away, he can hear the fond exasperation in Shiro's voice. Making his way into the stairwell, he pauses to shoot off a quick text to Hunk, but lingers when he hears Shiro start to speak.

"Keith I--"

"Shiro it's okay. Really."

"How can you say that running off after--"

"Well" Keith's voice has regained that sly lilt it gets only for Shiro, "after discovering that I'm part alien, spending two years on the back of a space whale trying not to get sucked into a black hole, and then fighting your clone on a collapsing rig I figure... if your baggage is that you're afraid to let someone love you, that's a pretty manageable problem?"

Shiro laughs, "Oh yeah?"

"Definitely. Between Coran's advice, Lance and Lotor's bad example, Pidge's problem solving, Hunk's faith, and Allura's magic someone is going to figure out a solution eventually."

"...we do have a great team. Obnoxious and meddlesome at times, but pretty great."

There's a drawn out silence and Adam is torn between leaving them to their privacy and sticking around to ensure things actually get fixed. Just as he's readying himself to bust back out the door, Keith speaks.

"It's...really beautiful. I didn't get to tell you before."

"It's one of the only things I have of my mom's. Her family had an ancestral sword that was damaged in an earthquake. Her father melted it down and made a ring out of what was left. My dad kept it after she left, but never wore it. I...I used to sleep with it on a chain around my neck."

More silence now, but this time filled with the anticipation of thoughts nearly voiced.

A heavy sigh. "I don't know anything about her, but...I think she'd be honored for you to wear it. That is, if you still want to be my fiance after my freak out."

Voice softer yet, nearly a whisper, "Takashi."

Quiet as he can, Adam descends the stairs. He doesn't need to listen in. He knows what it sounds like to say yes to Takashi Shirogane.

**Author's Note:**

> There's a lot more where this came from so if you hate it, sorry. Otherwise cool cool y'all are the best.


End file.
